Thp Zoologist — January, 1870. 1967 



beaver has from four to ten young — most often four, sometimes eight, 

 rarely ten. It carries its young six mont/is. It produces i>t May. 

 When the female is going to have young the male lakes the young of 

 last year (for sometimes as many as three generations will remain 

 around the paternal abode), and goes up a river several miles, remain- 

 ing there until the female has produced. 



The dams here, as everywhere else, are perfectly constructed, and 

 with an opening in the middle for the current. The only approach to 

 plastering their houses which I have observed is its giving a self- 

 satisfied " clap " of the tail on its laying down its load.* The loads 

 are carried between the top of the fore paws and the under surface of 

 the head. The trailing of the tail along the ground gives the vicinity 

 the appearance of being plastered. The house has two flats : the 

 bottom one is on a level with the water j the top one is used to sleep 

 in, and has communication with the water through the bottom. The 

 top one has direct communication with the land. Sometimes they 

 live in merely a tunnel or cave. In winter the Indians go along the 

 edge of the ice, sounding with a stick ; and wherever there is the 

 opening of one of these tunnels, the sound being different, he watches 

 and plugs up the opening. If these holes or tunnels are used as 

 escapes from the houses, they break into the latter. If the beaver is 

 not in, the Indian makes a hole in the ice. He then makes a great 

 noise, and watches the rippling of the water to see if he is there, 

 because his motion will have that effect. When alarmed he generally 

 rushes for his hole ; and finding it closed, he is often shot in his en- 

 deavour to escape. In trapping, some strong-smelling stuff (com- 

 monly castoreum in rum or cinammon) is spread on the path. The 

 trap is then set in the water. close to the bank, and covered with 

 about four inches of water. The beaver, attracted by the strong- 

 smelling substance, gives an approving slap of his tail, and starts off, 

 if anywhere in the neighbourhood, to investigate the booty ; and as 

 he is leaving the water, gives a " purchase," so as to spring up the 

 bank on the very place where the trap is concealed. His food is 

 principally willows. The bark is preferred, though the wood is eaten 

 when nothing else can be got. It will gnaw through thick trees, 

 apparently for the top foliage; for immediately the tree falls the 

 beavers spring on the branches of it. A stump showing beaver- 

 gnawing is not unlike Indian chopping (small irregular chops) ; and 



* On this point vide A. Murray, Edin. New Phil. Journal (1859), vol. ix. (n. s.) 

 p. 216, 



